According to the Equal Educational Opportunities Act (1974), any student enrolled in a public school is entitled to the opportunity for an equal education. The No Child Left Behind (2004), enhances previous legislation in trying to close the achievement gap between the disadvantaged students and their more economically privileged peers.
According to the state Academic Excellence Indicator System (2009), seventy-one percent of all ninth grade students passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), but less, sixty-one percent, of students considered to be economically disadvantaged passed. The gap between the general population and those considered to be economically disadvantaged narrows in the tenth and eleventh grade but there is still at least an eight percent gap between the two populations (Academic Excellence Indicator System, 2009). (Johnson and Owens, 2005) suggest that in order to best understand the complexities of a phenomenon occuring in the classrooms, it is important to understand all the other phenomena linked to the one in question. As they suggest, our study will consist of:
Problem Stated
Problem Defined
Phenomena Linked to The Problem
Depth of the Connection of Phenomena to The Problem
in order to determine the degree to which the problem has been explored (2005).
Problem Statement
High school campuses with a high percentage of students who are economically disadvantaged do not perform well academically.
Literature Review
Problem Defined
According to members of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources(2009), the poverty threshold is determined to be a monthly income of $1,214.16 for a family of two. Poverty guidelines are a measure of poverty used for administrative purposes. One example of a poverty guideline is the chart prepared by members of the Department of Health Care Services(2009), which indicates that the federal poverty level is determined by the monthly income being less than $2,429.00. for a family of two. Each child born into the family will require an additional $624 a month in order to remain above the poverty level. A single pregnant woman with no other children is concidered a family of two according to this same report. The authors of an article written for the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL)(2004) reported that the parents in a low social economic status see the purchasing of educational toys as a luxury.
EXEMPLARY- UNACCEPTABLE-
Phenomena Linked to The Problem
Student Background Paradigm
Lubienski (2007) believes that in order to close the achievement gap between the low and high socioeconomic populations, there must be a focus placed on the students coming from a low-socioeconomic background. She discusses how students from a low-socioeconomic status (SES) commonly take a realistic approach to solving math problems and these students tend to see math as only memorizing procedures which negatively impacts student achievement (Lubienski 2007).
Parental Involvment
In order to overcome these disparities, Lubienski (2007) believes these students must be carefully guided, have the best teachers and the smallest class sizes. She discusses how many students coming from a low-socioeconomic background do not always have the parental support needed to push them to take more challenging classes, to advocate for them to be put into the best teacher's classes and as a result often suffer academically (Lubienski, 2007). Howard, Dresser, and Dunklee (2009) recommend that increasing early parental involvment of the low SES homes will be part of the remedy to low performance by this demographic.According to Stvensen (2008), the interaction between members of a learning community are affected by what the teachers within the community perceive as expectations of other teachers.
Classroom Environment
Gould, Jarvis, Schroth, and Tomlinson (2006) researched the impact teachers had on the academic progress of students of color coming from a low socioeconomic background. They determined that in order for schools to become more successful in educating students of color with a low socioeconomic backgound, schools would have to focus on improving the educational experience of all students. They discussed the factors impacting these students which consisted of the alignment of the curriculum, instruction and assessment in the classroom; the attitudes toward the teacher; the extent to which teachers understood the academic and emotional needs to low socioeconomic students and the individual school's vision for these students. Gould, et al. (2006) suggest that one of the reasons students from low socioeconomic background do not perform well academically is that the school is not effective in identifying and developing the academic needs of these students. They also suggest that until these students are better served, they will be constantly at risk for academic failure which could impact them beyond the classroom (Gould et al., 2006).
TRENDS
According to a TEA report (2010) on enlrooment trends in Texas, there was a 21.1% increase increase of students of low SES enrollment in the past 10 years.
Depth of the Connection of Phenomon to The Problem
Although the authors of the Texas Education News Agency(2010) reported that all demographic population out performed the nation. The one demographic of interest is not reported in this news release.
Introduction
According to the Equal Educational Opportunities Act (1974), any student enrolled in a public school is entitled to the opportunity for an equal education. The No Child Left Behind (2004), enhances previous legislation in trying to close the achievement gap between the disadvantaged students and their more economically privileged peers.According to the state Academic Excellence Indicator System (2009), seventy-one percent of all ninth grade students passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), but less, sixty-one percent, of students considered to be economically disadvantaged passed. The gap between the general population and those considered to be economically disadvantaged narrows in the tenth and eleventh grade but there is still at least an eight percent gap between the two populations (Academic Excellence Indicator System, 2009). (Johnson and Owens, 2005) suggest that in order to best understand the complexities of a phenomenon occuring in the classrooms, it is important to understand all the other phenomena linked to the one in question. As they suggest, our study will consist of:
Problem Stated
Problem Defined
Phenomena Linked to The Problem
Depth of the Connection of Phenomena to The Problem
in order to determine the degree to which the problem has been explored (2005).
Problem Statement
High school campuses with a high percentage of students who are economically disadvantaged do not perform well academically.Literature Review
Problem Defined
According to members of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources(2009), the poverty threshold is determined to be a monthly income of $1,214.16 for a family of two. Poverty guidelines are a measure of poverty used for administrative purposes. One example of a poverty guideline is the chart prepared by members of the Department of Health Care Services(2009), which indicates that the federal poverty level is determined by the monthly income being less than $2,429.00. for a family of two. Each child born into the family will require an additional $624 a month in order to remain above the poverty level. A single pregnant woman with no other children is concidered a family of two according to this same report. The authors of an article written for the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL)(2004) reported that the parents in a low social economic status see the purchasing of educational toys as a luxury.EXEMPLARY-
UNACCEPTABLE-
Phenomena Linked to The Problem
Student Background Paradigm
Lubienski (2007) believes that in order to close the achievement gap between the low and high socioeconomic populations, there must be a focus placed on the students coming from a low-socioeconomic background. She discusses how students from a low-socioeconomic status (SES) commonly take a realistic approach to solving math problems and these students tend to see math as only memorizing procedures which negatively impacts student achievement (Lubienski 2007).Parental Involvment
In order to overcome these disparities, Lubienski (2007) believes these students must be carefully guided, have the best teachers and the smallest class sizes. She discusses how many students coming from a low-socioeconomic background do not always have the parental support needed to push them to take more challenging classes, to advocate for them to be put into the best teacher's classes and as a result often suffer academically (Lubienski, 2007). Howard, Dresser, and Dunklee (2009) recommend that increasing early parental involvment of the low SES homes will be part of the remedy to low performance by this demographic.According to Stvensen (2008), the interaction between members of a learning community are affected by what the teachers within the community perceive as expectations of other teachers.Classroom Environment
Gould, Jarvis, Schroth, and Tomlinson (2006) researched the impact teachers had on the academic progress of students of color coming from a low socioeconomic background. They determined that in order for schools to become more successful in educating students of color with a low socioeconomic backgound, schools would have to focus on improving the educational experience of all students. They discussed the factors impacting these students which consisted of the alignment of the curriculum, instruction and assessment in the classroom; the attitudes toward the teacher; the extent to which teachers understood the academic and emotional needs to low socioeconomic students and the individual school's vision for these students. Gould, et al. (2006) suggest that one of the reasons students from low socioeconomic background do not perform well academically is that the school is not effective in identifying and developing the academic needs of these students. They also suggest that until these students are better served, they will be constantly at risk for academic failure which could impact them beyond the classroom (Gould et al., 2006).TRENDS
According to a TEA report (2010) on enlrooment trends in Texas, there was a 21.1% increase increase of students of low SES enrollment in the past 10 years.
Depth of the Connection of Phenomon to The Problem
Although the authors of the Texas Education News Agency(2010) reported that all demographic population out performed the nation. The one demographic of interest is not reported in this news release.References
Equal Educational Opportunities, 20 U.S.C. §1701
Gould, H., Jarvis, J., Scroth, S., & Tomlinson, C.A. (2006). Multiple case studies of teachers and classrooms successful in supporting academic success of high potential low economic students of color. The National Center on the Gifted and Talented. Howard, T., Dresser, S.G., Dunklee, D.R., Poverty is not a learning disability equalizing opportunites for low SES students. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin A SAGE Company, 2009. http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09poverty.shtmlhttp://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Documents/FPL%20Chart%20for%20PE.pdfhttp://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/earlycld/ea7lk5.htmhttp://www.tea.state.tx.us/news_release.aspx?id=2147486058Johnson, B.L., Owens, M. (2005). Building new bridges linking organizational theory with other educational literatures. Journal of Educational Administration 43(1), 41-59. Lubienski, S.T. (2007). What we can do about achievement disparities. Educational Leadership 65(3), 54 – 59. No Child Left Behind, 20 U.S.C. §1001Stevenson, H.J., (Spring, 2008). to adapt or subscribe: Teachers' informal collaboration and view of mandatged curricula. University of the Pacific 17 (1), 75-95. Texas Education Agency. (2009). Academic Excellence Indicator System. Retrieved from http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/2009/state.htmlTexas Education Agency. (2010). Texas math and science ACT scores increase: composite score holds at record level. Retrieved from http://www.tea.state.tx.us/news_release.aspx?id=2147486058Texas Education Agency. (2010). Enrollment in Texas public schools. Retrieved from http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=4128